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National Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joshua Akamba says the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) recommendation that the selection of a fresh candidate will "revitalise the prospects" of the opposition party in the 2024 polls is nothing but a ‘joke’.
 
The Unit projected that the NDC will have a better chance of winning the 2024 polls if they are led by a new candidate.
 
According to the EIU, an attempt to reintroduce former President John Dramani Mahama who led the NDC unsuccessfully in 2016 and 2020 will again help the party to remain in opposition.
 
“The next parliamentary and presidential elections are due in 2024. Under constitutionally mandated term limits, the incumbent president, Mr Akufo-Addo, cannot run for a third term. The former president, John Mahama, is reportedly considering running again, but we expect the opposition NDC to try to revitalise its prospects with a fresh candidate,” the latest EIU report indicated.
 
It added: “Our baseline forecast is that ongoing public dissatisfaction with the slow pace of improvements in governance—such as infrastructure development, job creation and easing of corruption—will trigger anti-incumbency factors and push the electorate to seek a change. The NDC, therefore, stands a reasonable chance of winning the 2024 elections”.

This was revealed in the EIU’s five-year forecast for Ghana released on April 13, 2022.

But, Joshua Akamba doubts if the EIU indeed conducted an extensive survey before making public their findings.
 
In an interview with NEAT FM’s morning show, Ghana Montie, Mr Akamba said EIU has on previous occasions given a false prediction of Ghana’s election – hence, their recent one is equally ‘baseless’.
 
“They predicted the NPP was going to win the last election with a clear majority, they couldn’t predict NPP was going to lose the 2020 election. if not for rigging, there is no way they NPP would have won against (ex) President Mahama as the NDC's flagbearer,” he asserted.
 
Whiles discrediting the methodology used by the London-based analysts for the survey, Akamba accused the EIU of being ill-informed about issues within the NDC and measures being taken to solve them ahead of the 2024 election.
 
“The EIU, they might not even have gone round to check exactly the problems that caused the defeat of the NDC. They have not done that.
 
"It doesn’t matter who we [NDC] will bring if the challenges are not solved. President Mahama was not the cause of NDC’s defeat. The EIU got it wrong," he told the host, Akwasi Aboagye.